Food Hoarding: Feasting on Control
ADHD and Children with Hard Histories
I love to spend time with my kids! But sometimes, I also dread helping them with homework. Though necessary, homework isn’t on my top ten list of “most fun family activities,” and I’m guessing I’m not the only parent who feels that way! When you are parenting children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), doing schoolwork can quickly shift from an annoying ritual to painfully frustrating. Why is schoolwork so difficult for children with ADHD? Consider […]
The Responsibility of a Transracial Adoptive Parent
When I became an adoptive parent with my husband John, our four daughters became part of our new multiracial family. They received our last name, they gained many fun relatives, family traditions, and they will inherit our belongings and money when we die. Their personalities are, in part, shaped by the environment in our home […]
7 Steps To Increase Your Emotional Margin
Working Mother. This has taken on an entirely new meaning during the COVID-19 pandemic. My quest for maintaining a proper work/ life balance has been replaced with figuring out how to survive the day while maintaining work, family and children’s education while somehow maintaining my own sanity. As a mother of two special needs children […]
Haunted House Feelings
By Staci Thomas, TBRI® Practitioner It’s the scary season. Haunted houses and spooky events are everywhere. People pay money to be frightened. If you are one of those people, you enter a creepy house knowing that you are going to scream, jump, and be scared out of your wits. Even though you know some sort of […]
Adoption Granted! Now What?
Adoption is beautiful but it doesn’t end in the courtroom. Years of waiting, heartache, loss and wondering precedes adoption day. There are countless hours of planning, preparation and paperwork, but when the day finally arrives, it’s over in the blink of an eye. We applaud adoptive parents, but we don’t realize that when the papers are […]
No Replacements Necessary
“How would you feel if Grammy walked away from you? I feel like I wasn’t wanted.” This is what one of my daughters tearfully said to me about sixteen years after she was adopted. We were standing in our family room on the day of a school discussion that triggered big emotions. She was asking […]
Bridging the Gap: How to Improve Birth Family Visits
Birth family visits are one of the most challenging aspects of foster care. They are confusing for foster parents, not to mention how emotional they are for birth parents. Sometimes, foster children look forward to these temporary reunions with their family but are wrecked at the brevity. Other times, children dread these visits, as they […]
One on One Time
Children with a trauma history don’t receive correction well unless they have connection to a safe, loving caregiver. As a result, it is essential that parents be intentional about taking time to connect with their hurting children every day. Unfortunately, as parents, we tend to focus on correction first. Cindy Lee, Executive Director of the […]
Foster and Adoption: Language and Sharing Imperfections
BY STACI THOMAS The words we use have a tremendous impact on those around us. It’s crucial to choose our language carefully when speaking of adoption and foster children. We should strive to use phrases that reflect how deeply we care. This means we need to avoid words that cast judgment on the child, paint […]
Grieving is Good
In 18 years of parenting, tears have been shed in our home for thousands of different reasons. However, the reason that causes the most tears from me is regarding the grief my children sometimes feel about being adopted. Every ounce of my being wants to make that grief disappear. I want to heal their sadness […]
